by Ulysses, San Mateo
I remember when I went into the foster system like it was yesterday. I was at my house with my brothers and cousins waiting for our parents to get home, but my mother didn’t make it home that day.
Out of nowhere I see a lot of big trucks and police officers with big guns coming towards my mom’s house. I had no idea what we had done wrong because my mother had a normal life and I never saw my mom rob or steal none of that.
I remember my brothers and cousins were taken outside our house and I saw my mom in the back of the police car. She kept shaking her head but I didn’t know that she was handcuffed and couldn’t wave to us. It was a lot for me (to take in) and I was 10 years old when all of this happened.
I remember we were in a truck with two cops in the front seats. I didn’t know where we were going. One of the cops told me and my brothers that we will never see our mom or family members ever again.
I don’t know what was going on with one of the cops because he was so mad, while telling us a lot of bad things we didn’t ever want to hear.
We were all taken to this shelter and at one point I thought that I was going to jail. I don’t know why I was thinking that but I was only ten-years old and a year before I had seen my dad get shot and ran over. I was so young I didn’t cry or nothing.
I thought that we were going home after, but no. We went to a foster home. It was a living hell. The first thing I was told to do was throw away my clothes that I had on. I told them that I wasn’t going to throw away my clothes because my mother got them for me. The foster mom told me that my mother wasn’t my mom anymore.
The foster lady told me “I am your mom now so forget about your mom.”
I started crying because I wanted my mom.
I was separated from my brother for a little while too. I kept telling and asking my social worker if my brothers could live with me. It took like a couple of months before she made that happen.
I remember (the foster parent) she would have me cleaning all the time because she was crazy.
Sooner or later my grandma took us under her care. We were back with our family. I would always ask my grandma why my mom went to jail and why we had to go through this. My grandma told me that she was selling drugs and they found so many pounds of cocaine and other drugs in the house.
I was shocked because I couldn’t see my mother doing that. I could see why we had everything we asked for. It was nothing for my mom. My mother got sent back to her country, and we were able to finally see our mother after a long year or so. As time went by my mother came back to the United States, but we still had social workers. We still kept going to the courts.
We were with the foster system for like eight or nine years until my family/my mom got her stuff together and we were able to live together as a happy family like we were living back then before all of this stuff was going on.
Now I am 18 and waiting to start my new chapter when I get out of here.